Tobit 2:10-12
New Catholic Bible
10 [a]I was not aware that sparrows were poised on the wall above me. Their warm droppings fell into my eyes, causing white patches to form, and I had to go to the doctors for a cure. But the more they treated my eyes with their ointment, the more my vision was impaired by the white patches, until at last I became completely blind. For four years I remained sightless. All my kindred grieved at my situation, and Ahiqar took care of me for two years, until he departed for Elymais.[b]
11 At that time my wife Anna used to earn money by working in her rooms for payment, spinning wool and weaving cloth. 12 When she delivered what she had made to those who had ordered the work, they would pay her. On the seventh day of the month Dystros,[c] she completed a particular job of weaving and delivered it to her employers. They not only paid her the agreed-upon wages in full but also gave her a young goat for a meal.
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- Tobit 2:10 Elymais was the Greek name for Elam, which lay between Persia and Babylonia.
- Tobit 2:10 At this point the Vulgate has an additional seven verses that begin as follows: “12The Lord permitted that [Tobit] should undergo this trial so that his patience might be an example to his posterity, like the patience of holy Job. 13For although he had always feared God from his infancy, and kept his commandments, he did not complain against God because the evil of blindness had befallen him. 14Rather, he continued immovable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life. 15For as the kings [i.e., fellow chieftains] taunted holy Job, so his relations and kindred mocked at Tobit’s life, saying: 16‘Where is your hope, for which you gave alms and buried the dead?’ 17But Tobit rebuked them, saying, ‘Do not speak this way; 18for we are children of saints and we await that life that God will give to those who never lack faith in him.’ ”
- Tobit 2:12 The Macedonian month of Dystros corresponded to the Jewish month of Shebat (January–February). For a meal: literally, “for the hearth.” The gift may have been given at the time of some feast in the spring like the Jewish Feast of Purim.
